Excavation contractor, Washington County
Excavation & Site Prep
Building pads, foundation and basement digs, driveways, drainage and finish grading for new homes, shops, barns and commercial lots across southern Utah.
What we dig
From raw lot to ready-to-pour.
Good excavation is the part of a build nobody notices, because the pad is level, the footings are to depth and water runs away from the house. That’s the standard on every Diggin’ Riggin’ job.
We handle the full site-prep sequence: clearing, rough grade, cut and fill, pad and footing excavation, utility trenches, backfill and compaction, then fine grading around the structure.
Typical projects
- New-home building pads and footings
- Basement and crawl-space excavation
- Shop, barn and garage pads
- Driveways, approaches and parking areas
- Drainage swales, French drains and culverts
- Commercial and agricultural site work
Local ground
Southern Utah dirt is not normal dirt.
Three things make a pad or foundation dig here different from the rest of the state. We plan for all of them before we quote.
Caliche
A calcium-carbonate hardpan a foot or two down across much of the St. George area. Footings have to go through it, so we bring the machine that can, and the bid already accounts for it.
Blue clay
Chinle-formation clay swells when wet and can lift footings and crack slabs. Where the geotech report calls it out, we over-excavate and rebuild the pad with compacted engineered fill in lifts.
Sandstone & rock
Along the mesas and washes, soil can be thin over Navajo sandstone. Rock changes the equipment, the schedule and the price, which is why we walk every site first.
Working with builders
Show up on schedule, leave a clean site.
We build the pad to the plan and coordinate with your concrete, plumbing and septic trades so nobody’s waiting on dirt.
Homeowners building on their own lot get the same treatment, plus plain-English explanations of what we are doing and why.
What you get
- Written estimate after a site walk
- Grade to plan, verified before concrete
- Compaction in lifts, not one big dump
- Utility locates called in before we dig
- Clean-up and haul-off included in the bid
FAQ
Common questions
How much does excavation cost in the St. George area?
National cost guides put excavation at roughly $190 to $340 per hour for a machine with operator, or $50 to $150 per cubic yard depending on soil, rock and access. Southern Utah caliche, blue clay and rock move those numbers, which is why we walk the lot and give you a written estimate instead of a guess.
Do you do small residential jobs or only big sites?
Both. A single trench for a water line, a driveway, a shop pad or a full subdivision lot all get the same crew and the same attention.
Do you handle permits and utility locates?
We call in Blue Stakes (811) utility locates before every dig. Building permits run through the city or Washington County; we work to your approved plans and coordinate with the inspector on grade and footings.
How soon can you start?
Depends on the season and the size of the job. Call and we'll give you an honest date, not an optimistic one.
Free estimate
Tell us about the job.
Fill this out and we’ll call you back. Prefer to talk? Call (702) 289-7016.
- Site visits and estimates are free anywhere in our service area
- Residential, commercial and agricultural
- Serving Apple Valley and all of Washington County